Timber - Parts and Labor (re-up)

This one is for Michael dustdevil who requested the re-up about a hundred years ago...

Original post here

computer games play themselves (again)

Death of Samantha - Where the Women Wear the Glory and the Men Wear the Pants

This is a quick one since the Feelin' Kinda Froggy blog is MIA.

Almost an entire year ago I posted Death of Samantha's Come All Ye Faithless LP and Laughing in the Face of a Dead Man EP. User "robgronotte" requested Where the Women Wear the Glory and the Men Wear the Pants. Here it is.

My previous descriptions still apply - RAWK.

We got stoned and passed out on Lovers' Lane

Zoom - (zoom)

This was requested several months ago. Sorry I'm just getting to it now.

If you look up "mid-90s midwestern indie rock" in the dictionary, you may well find this album's cover in the accompanying illustration. It doesn't get more midwestern than Lawrence, Kansas, home of the flash-in-the-pan powerhouse Lotuspool label. For about 29 months, Lotuspool completely owned it with releases from local darlings like Panel Donor, Bully Pulipit, and Zoom.

Then Lotuspool disappeared.

I can relate.

If you liked the tight arrangements and quiet-loud dynamics that ruled CMJ "Core" radio playlists in 1991, check this out.

let's pretend this never happened

Various Artists - Red Hot + Bothered: the indie rock guide to dating

The track list speaks for itself.  These were mostly (entirely?) unreleased or alternate versions of songs by eighteen of 1994's hottest indie rock superstars.  It hearkens back to the day when lo-fi was often a fiscal necessity as much as it was a stylistic choice.  

Obviously, this was an early release in the now long-running series of Red Hot releases benefitting AIDS education, treatment and research.  As far as I can tell, this comp has been out of print for many years.  So, you should not feel guilty about downloading it today.  You are not taking Atripla out of anyone's mouth.  Nevertheless, if you are so inclined, please stop over to the Red Hot web site.  Poke around, learn some, maybe make a donation.

"Sensational Gravity Boy" performed by Freedom Cruise

"Still Flat" performed by Built to Spill + Caustic Resin

"The Mirror Is Gone" performed by Lisa Germano

"Mouthwash" performed by Noise Addict

"Indierockinstrumental" performed by Folk Implosion

"Some Fantasy" performed by The Verlaines

"Little League" performed by Liquorice

"Hazmats *" performed by Babe The Blue Ox

"Mainland China *" performed by Juicy

"The Fontana *" performed by The Sea and Cake

"Sotto Voce" performed by Cradle Robbers

"Rex’s Blues" performed by Jay Farrar + Kelly Willis

"Empty Yard" performed by Grifters

"Miracleland" performed by East River Pipe

"Snail Trail *" performed by Heavenly

"Hopeless *" performed by Future Bible Heroes

"Servicing Man *" performed by Flying Nuns

"Quietly Approaching *" performed by Gastr Del Sol

if we wait for others to remember...

Coral - Altamont in Dub

By popular demand - i.e. one person requested it - here is Coral's second and final LP.  All the remarks I made in my previous post about their first LP basically apply here, too.  The title is more than just a clever turn of phrase, though.  There are reggae-affected bass lines throughout.  You won't confuse this record with The Upsetters, let alone Fugazi, but the intent seems obvious to my ears.

  

Ever since I posted Pillow Talk, I've been listening to these two Coral LPs more in the last few weeks than I have in the last ten years.   As the saying goes, these records have aged very well.  Very well.  With all the chamber pop that passes for "indie rock" these days, it's refreshing to hear some authentically atonal vocals backed by a real Power Trio and put to tape (tape!) with bare boned clarity.

My old friend Doug, currently writing for Dusted and otherwise living the dream in NYC, probably said it best in a Halloween-themed column: 

Schick’s later outing in Coral marks its territory as the most depressive, backbiting, hopeless rock music ever committed to tape, with drops of your own blood. Altamont in Dub was the last release for the stalled Fistpuppet imprint; its title alone should clue you in to what’s in store: a dark, disturbing, intensive reinterpretation of a tragedy. Musically, Altamont is top notch, determinedly metallic, mostly uptempo, and pregnant with deep rhythms, but this is a cursed album that feeds into your insecurities and misgivings, fueling their cold fire but inevitably leaving you assed out once it’s all over. Do you dare find out for yourself?

word.

Tanner - (Germo) Phobic

Lots of good stuff was coming out of San Diego in the early 90s.  Rocket From the Crypt (RIP) got lots of the attention, and deservedly so - you would be hard pressed to find a band more dedicated than RFTC to the absolute entertainment and enjoyment of every fan at their shows.  Of course, one of frontman John Reis' other bands was arguably far more influential.   Indeed, Drive Like Jehu is one of my all time favorites, and undoubtedly inspired a few others.  

One of Jehu's later tour partners were fellow San Diegoans Tanner.  One time ubiquitous indie behemoth Caroline even released their first LP, Ill Gotten Gains.   And if you search the interwebs for a minute or two you should be able to find a copy for yourself.  (If not, let me know.  I'll be happy to upload upon request).  

The follow-up LP (Germo) Phobic was far more difficult to find.  Not just in today's blog- and P2P-driven communities.  I mean that when the CD was hot off the presses you could not find the fucker anywhere.  The label never even serviced my old college station, WRCT - and in those days, EVERYONE serviced WRCT.  I never saw a copy at my local record store, either, and it was not for a lack of looking. The scarcity continues today.  Google doesn't seem to know about any other blog uploads, so I'm just trying to do my part.

Enough with the preamble.  If you like Jehu and similar-minded tight, tense, and intense guitar-driven rock, get to clickin'.

we were the right ones

Cell - Slo*Blo

As I've mentioned before, there was a time when record store cut-out bins were stacked to the ceiling with all the WTF major label signings.  If you dig around long enough you probably still can find a handful of vintage 1993 DGC promo copies of this record at my local  favorite.  

I probably haven't listened to this since I first dismissed it as just another typical major label cash-in on my beloved "underground" sound.  But a funny thing happened recently.  I stumbled back upon the DGC Rarities, Vol. 1 compilation, and it turns out that the Cell track on there is pretty fucking huge.  One thing led to another, and I ordered this CD for one penny plus shipping.  

My penny saved is your penny earned (yeah yeah, not my best metaphor, I know).  Never mind this album is one of the more notorious relics of that borderline-psychotic post-Nevermind major label feeding frenzy.  After fifteen years, Slo*Blo actually holds up really well with such time-lapsed objectivity.  I am obligated to mention Sonic Youth here - Cell's drummer was a SY roadie before hitting the big time, as it were - but save for that relationship and being signed by DGC, that's where the similarities end.  This record is full of loud, midtempo rock songs with soaring guitar duels and anthemic choruses.  If I had to pick an indie rock icon as a reference, I would have to say Lungfish.  That's right.

now you wonder why

Crystalized Movements - This Wideness Comes

What the hell am I going to say about this?  I am not worthy to describe it accurately, but I will try anyway.  Crystalized Movements was the first in a long succession of bands led by underground psychedelic guitar icon Wayne Rogers. Eric Arn (of Primordial Undermind, and an underground guitar icon in his own right) played second guitar in earlier lineups of Crystalized Movements.  Prior to releasing This Wideness Comes in 1990, Arn was replaced by longtime Rogers collaborator and partner Kate Biggar.  The rest, as they say, is history.  

Most songs start out as melodic psychedelic rock, dive into one or more heavy freak-out rabbit holes, and occasionally splash around in the quicksand of Sonic Youth style noise.  Like I said, I cannot describe this accurately.  Take my word for it, this record is pure joy.  

I have never seen this album in any of the usual blog circles.  Why not? I would say that This Wideness Comes set the tone for the next eighteen years (and counting) of Rogers-Biggar creations.  After one more Crystallized Movements LP (Revelations From Pandemonium, 1992) the pair continued to expand their mind-altering vision of rock music in Vermonster, Bongloads of Righteous Boo, Magic Hour, and - currently - Major Stars.  

For fans of Twisted Village, Forced Exposure, rock music, and w33d.

the kitchen's out of sugar

Some Velvet Sidewalk - Whirpool

Some Velvet Sidewalk were contemporaries of Beat Happening in the late 80s/early 90s Pacific Northwest scene.  Not surprisingly, K Records released most of their recordings.  They shared Beat Happening's minimalist approach to rock, but Some Velvet Sidewalk were a bit more... there is no way to candy coat this... talented.  

Even then, it took SVS a couple albums to really get their stride.  Whirlpool is my personal favorite album of theirs.  It was certainly heavier than their earlier releases, but it was also more sprawling in its sound and tighter in its performance.  No doubt this was thanks in large part to production by Steve Fisk.  

If you like slightly atonal, sometimes noisy and droning, occassionally childlike, but ultimately melodic indie rock typical of the early K Records persuasion, check it out.

i blame you

The Most Secret Method - Get Lovely

Where to start?

I suspect that some subscribers to this blog have their own  forgotten favorites, as I do.  Bands who were criminally unknown in their time.  Music so transcendent that I cannot believe I am the first to post it for download in teh blog-o-sphere.

I live in Pittsburgh but I have a few friends in DC.  In my single days that was a no-brainer weekend roadie, with time to spare for post-show Ben's Chili Bowl plus a Saturday afternoon record shopping and billiards spree in Fells Point.  

I first saw The Most Secret Method play in 1999 at the Move Studio in Pittsburgh, a dance studio/indie rock show space in a distressed suburb called Wilkinsburg.   I can't remember for sure who they opened for (I think it was Juno), but I know they made a lasting impression.  I made at least three trips after that to catch them in DC, including their sweltering farewell show at the Black Cat in August 2002.  Every trip would have been a blast regardless, but the Most Secret Method was the reason.

How to describe them?  Take the SG-driven sound of Fugazi, combine it with the post-hardcore pop slant of Jawbox, add the male-female vocal dueling of X, arrange it with the minimalistic economy of the Minutemen, front it with a Broadway-caliber singer, and back it with a fretless bass virtuoso.  If you liked the DC sound of the late 90s but you never head them before, The Most Secret Method are your new favorite band from that scene.

get ready to move

Coral - Pillow Talk

I subscribe to several other like-minded blogs - far more prolific than my own, for the most part.  There was a minor Honor Role sensation over the last few weeks when at least two of you posted the Rictus album (see here and here).  One or two follow up comments mentioned singer Bob Schick's next band Coral.  That reminded me that I've never been able to find a digital copy of Coral's first LP Pillow Talk.  

Apparently, I could not find find mp3s of that album because no one ever bought it.  There is a seemingly endless supply of  "sealed, mint condition" Pillow Talk CDs in virtual cut-out bins all across the interwebs.  I am still gainfully employed, thankfully.  Doing my part to end the recession, I sprung for a frivolous luxury and ordered myself a copy ($5 postpaid!).  

So here you have it.  If you like Bob Schick's vocals (not everyone does), read on.  If you liked the indie-blues arrangements of Come, and if you dig Crazy Horse devotees like J. Mascis, Silkworm and Karl Hendricks, this is very much in the same vein.  If you slept on this record 15 years ago, here is your shot at redemption.

i remember it all so clear

Gear Jammer - Horsepower 2000 7"

Here's a response to a recent post by our like-minded friends at [shiny grey monotone]

This was Hazelmeyer's short-lived post-Halo of Flies band.  They only released two 7" records as far as I know.  Check out the other one here.

i drink, too

The Wedding Present - Watusi

You can't swing a dead cat in a room full of aging hipsters without lashing someone who owns a copy of Seamonsters.  With good reason.  What I don't get is why more people don't also adore the follow up, Watusi.  

Lyrically, it continues the usual themes of unrequited love and narcissistic heartbreak.  Musically, however, the band built on the shredding guitar template and adopted a somewhat more diverse sonic palette.  Recording with Steve Fisk may have helped.  Listen to Fisk's contemporary project Pell Mell (posted yesterday, here) and you may hear what I mean.  

It's difficult to find this album in any format right now.  It is not for sale at any of the major mp3 stores. I could not even find it posted on another blog.  Hopefully, Island Records will not hammer me as hard as they did Negativeland.  Enjoy!

they can keep it all

Pell Mell - Flow & Interstate

  

[I have been very busy lately with work and family.  Free time has been at a premium.    To those who have commented and written, thanks for the encouragement!]

For whatever reason, there is a disproportionate amount of music released in 1992 that has always dominated my turntable/CD player/computer/iPod playlists.  Among my very favorites from that year, and from all time, is Pell Mell's third LP Flow.  This is gorgeous instrumental guitar rock music with just the right combination of noise and melody and quite a distinctive style.  It certainly borrows elements from surf music and krautrock, but from my perspective this mostly sounds like... well, it sounds like Pell Mell.

All you middle-aged heads like me remember the major label feeding frenzy of the early 90s.  For Pell Mell, it was kismet.  Microsoft used a snippet of one of their songs (I think it was "Flood" but I am not sure, and the interwebs fail me on this search).  Pell Mell's former manager was working as an A&R rep for DGC.  I suppose that was as much "buzz" as one could have ever foreseen about for an anonymous, scattered,nomadic instrumental band which rarely played live and almost never toured.  The result was Interstate, another gorgeous record which picked up where Flow left off.

Interstate was not gorgeous enough in the sales column, apparently.  Pell Mell recorded another record for DGC but they got downsized instead.  The resultant album - Star City - wound up on Matador.  

A few years later I had a pleasant surprise watching the second episode of HBO's excellent Six Feet Under.  Fans of that program should instantly recognize the first song on Interstate.

[...]

Royal Trux - Sweet Sixteen

I think this album is genius, and I think the following review from Rolling Stone nails it perfectly... except for the 1-star rating, that is.

"Virginia's Royal Trux mix bad Company biker blues, Southern rock, synthesized AM drivel and arty college experimentation like an underage bar goer mixes drinks: slamming 'em down till they come back up as regurgitated sonic swill. Combine that with a trailer-trash-chic image – skintight bell-bottoms, cowboy boots and whiskey-warped expressions – and you have an underclass shtick that has made the Trux underground faves.

On their sixth underproduced album and second major-label release (yet another indie band signed in Nirvana's wake), singer Jennifer Herrema works hard at sounding trashy, slurring lyrics in a raspy tone a la Nazareth. She hisses ultranasty lines like "Sweet 16 and never been clean" alongside guitarist and vocalist Neil Hagerty's own thin warble. Indulgent wah-wah guitar solos bump into disjointed drum beats.

Every song on Sweet Sixteen eventually lapses into a meandering mess, even on tunes where the Trux attempt to mimic Zeppelin's repetitive rhythms or the Allman Brothers' jams. Instead of respecting the music they bastardize, the Trux treat it as low art, approaching '70s rock like a cocky adult playing a kids' game. By mid-album, you begin to wish Lynyrd Skynyrd had crashed this recording session and kicked the Trux's pretentious asses into some sort of cohesive groove." (RS 757)

yuk

Royal Trux - Thank You

Much has been made of the major label feeding frenzy in the years following Nevermind. It left many a hipster scratching his head and asking "did they really think this would appeal to the Wreckz-n-Effects-loving masses?"

For what it's worth, Thank You was Royal Trux' most accessible album to date. Everything is relative, of course. This probably would have been far more accessible around stoners' basements everywhere in 1971 than it was around Tower Records in 1995.

Royal Trux took on a full band for this record, as well as Neil Young's then-producer of choice David Briggs. The result was a blissfully jammed out rawk record cut live in the studio, and a presage for the remainder of Trux' run.

The sailor has to masturbate until the ship lands

Gapeseed - Project 64

I used to gobble up stuff like this as fast as people could put it out.  Angular, dissonant rock with equal parts chaos and melody.  Maybe a cross between Sonic Youth and Beefheart.  Polvo was the obvious leader of that pack, but Gapeseed deserves mention as well.  

Legacy?  As I've written before about other records on this blog, web searches turn up only the most rudimentary information about Gapeseed.  For what it's worth, I don't plan to throw this CD into my sell pile anytime soon.  Then again, demand for regionally obscure indie noise-pop is unusually low right now.  

ceci n'es épuisé

The Miss - No Radio

When this came out I thought The Miss were destined to be among the great undiscovered nouveau noise rock/no-wave bands - like my local favorites The 1985 (of whom I'll probably post something here eventually).  

Nouveau noise rock/no-wave?  "Come again," you say?  Well, you could sorta dance to these bands in a quirky sort of way, like Devo, Pop Group and Liquid Liquid.  They were atonal, like MX-80 and DNA.  They had a thick rhythm section driving most of the songs, akin to Jesus Lizard, Craw, Slug, et al.  And some of them actually got kinda big.  Well, Pitchfork big, anyway.  Liars.  Ex Models.  And so on.

The Miss did not get big, but that was certainly not for a lack of recorded effort.  This one and only LP could have easily stood its ground against all comers.  But it never had the chance, and alas here it is on my blog instead.  Enjoy.

i can't understand any of their lyrics so no clever hyperlink here, ok?

Grafton - Blind Horse Campaign

In case anyone is branding me as some indie rock oldster in full-on mid life crisis, here's something from this century.  Grafton is a heavy rawk trio from Columbus, OH - the most hospitable city I've ever visited, for what it's worth.  

You could easily mistake Grafton as an offshoot from Laughing Hyenas and/or Mule.  They also cruise down the same highway as Rye Coalition and Tight Bros From Way Back When.  Not enough RIYL references for you?  How about this - AC/DC.

If that doesn't do it then you obviously do not like rock music.

fine, good, go!

Death of Samantha - Come All Ye Faithless / Laughing in the Face of a Dead Man

I've had these in my queue for a while.  I am putting them up today mostly because of a post earlier this week over at Willfully Obscure.  You can also find the Death of Samantha LP Where the Women Wear the Glory and the Men Wear the Pants over at Feelin' Kinda Froggy.

DoS is hard for me to describe because (1) I wasn't aware of them when they were actually together, and (2) it's impossible for me to ignore their future collective and individual endeavors (Cobra Verde, Gem, GBV).  They were from Cleveland, so it's no crime to hear some Pere Ubu influence.  However, this is definitely closer to straight ahead rawk than Ubu ever was.  

Come All Ye Faithless was their third and final LP.  Some say it's their best.  I say it's best not to choose sides.  Laughing in the Face of a Dead Man is an EP released between their first LP, Strungout on Jargon (which I can upload too if there are no other takers), and Where the Women Wear the Glory...  It has a rippin' cover of "Werewolves of London" as well as my personal favorite DoS song "Yellow Fever."  

sick and satisfied